Former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu on Tuesday slammed BJP prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani for having claimed in an interview with a news agency on Sunday last that he had held a "secret meeting" with him. Basu admitted having held a meeting with Advani to stop communal riots in the country and to request him not to take out the "rathyatra". "There was nothing secret about the meeting," said Basu. Basu's response to Advani's claim of a "secret meting" was reported in the CPI(M)'s Bengali mouthpiece Ganashakti on Tuesday. "There was nothing secret about it. I had requested Advani not to take out the rathyatra,but he did not listen to me," the veteran Pollitburo member said in the article. Basu further told his party mouthpiece: "The meeting took place at Advani's house. V P Singh was the Prime Minister at that time. Advani was then preparing for the construction of the Ram Mandir in place of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya. That time V P Singh called me and told me to take some initiative to tackle the alarming situation so that the Rathyatra could be stopped. I consulted my party and then met Advani at his house." The Ganashakti interview of Basu further quoted him as saying: "I told Advani that his rath would have images of Ramchandra as well as the flag of his party. This rath is supposed to travel through various areas of the country which could trigger unrest and communal violence. So,you better refrain from taking it out. Instead,try to find a solution through talks. But Advani did not listen to me. He kept on making preparations. Then again I talked to V P Singh and we decided that we would talk again on how to rein in Advani. The next meeting took place at the house of Viren J Shah,the then vice-president of the BJP who later became the Governor of West Bengal. This time,Advani was not there. The meeting was attended by V P Singh,me and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. But the rathyatra could not be stopped and it resulted in the killing of a few thousand people." Basu further said: "It was Advani who led the demolition of the Babri mosque. In a meeting of chief ministers,we raised the demand that if needed the central government should use Article 356 to prevent such a thing (demolition of a religious place),though we ourselves are opposed to use of Art 356. Later (on the day of demolition),both me and H S Surjeet,who was at that time general secretary of the party,called Narasimha Rao (then prime minister) and told him: "Very bad news is coming. You take quick action. But he did not do anything and Babri was demolished."
